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International Law

Criminal Review

CriminalReview.ca is an open forum for the public discussion of recent announcements and developments in the criminal law of Canada.

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Last Entry: January 08, 2009 at 14:32:16

Beavis and Butthead’s terror plot

Posted on March 26, 2008
One of the few things that are still said in defense of the Worst U. S. President Ever is that he has somehow managed to “keep America safe” during the so-called War on Terror. I have never found these arguments particularly convincing. It seems to me that he bears some responsibility for the failures leading [...

Taser time

Posted on March 25, 2008
A new report that came out today (CBC, Toronto Star) paints a troubling picture about the reporting of Taser use. The RCMP is stripping crucial details about Taser firings from public reports as use of the controversial stun guns skyrockets across the country...

R. v. Swan

Posted on March 19, 2008
An application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (Attorney General) on the availability of the defence provided by s. 43 of the Criminal Code (”Correction of child by force”) in a case of assault...

R. v. Stirling (SCC)

Posted on March 14, 2008
In a brief decision the Supreme Court upholds the B. C. Court of Appeal’s ruling in R. v. Stirling. No surprise to readers of this blog. The case dealt with the use that prior consistent statements can be put, and the fine line between rebutting an allegation of recent fabrication and supporting a witness’s credibility...

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Murderabilia

Posted on March 11, 2008
This is going too far: Corrections Canada has been ordered to review the Internet-based auction of prison artwork by a convicted killer. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day asked the commissioner of the prisons agency to look into the case involving Roch Theriault, now serving a life sentence in New Brunswick for a brutal murder...

R. v. Caldwell

Posted on March 11, 2008
Back in July I ran a post about the decision in R. v. Long (I didn’t have a link to the decision then, but it’s up now here) which found that provisions for the legal use of marihuana for medical purposes were unconsititutional. Now the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia’s ruling in R...

R. v. Smedley

Posted on March 10, 2008
Having a bit of fun with statutory interpretation (pdf file). Mr. Smedley and Ms. Parker kept 13 chickens in a shed on their property in a residential neighbourhood, in violation of a Halifax by-law prohibiting keeping “livestock” (including “fowl”) in an “accessory building...

The CSI Effect

Posted on March 10, 2008
Canadian jurors are being brainwashed by American cop shows! It’s called the CSI Effect. The Toronto Star reports: The so-called phenomenon, CSI effect, named after the top-rated crime scene investigation series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, is alarming U...

Shifting paradigms

Posted on March 04, 2008
The Literary Review of Canada isn’t one of the usual sources for this site, but their latest issue has an interesting essay by security consultant Paul McKenna arguing that policing has seen a shift away from the “community-based” approach to fighting crime that was in vogue in the 90s to a more technology-based, information driven [...

R. v. National Post

Posted on February 29, 2008
In an important case examining the scope of reporter-source privilege, the Ontario Court of Appeal orders an investigative journalist to give it up. (For a quick overview, the Star has a story.) Investigative reporter Andrew McIntosh had in his possession an apparently forged loan document purporting to show the owner of a Quebec golf club owed money to Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s holding company and planned to repay it with a loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada...

R. v. Ferguson (SCC)

Posted on February 29, 2008
The Supreme Court of Canada passed down its ruling today in R. v. Ferguson (for some background on what the case was about and the decisions in the lower courts, see my earlier comment here). The news media have been all over it (CBC, Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star)...

R. v. Dreyer

Posted on February 27, 2008
Another search incident to arrest, this time of the appellant’s car during a liquor search. After the appellant had been told to leave the car an officer searched the car, ostensibly for liquor, and found cocaine in a brown paper bag. Luckily for him, under the relevant legislation (s...

Something fishy

Posted on February 26, 2008
Lots of news coverage of this story: Ontario’s ombudsman has blasted the province’s Legal Aid agency for “catastrophic” errors in judgment in the financing of the $1 million defence of former Toronto police officer Richard Wills...

R. v. Noble

Posted on February 25, 2008
An interesting application of hate law legislation to the Internet. The accused was running some kind of neo-nazi white supremacy website. Was this promoting hatred by communicating statements other than in private conversation? Yes. The use of the Internet has in many respects transformed the world of communications and the word itself...

R. v. Six Accused Persons

Posted on February 25, 2008
S. 184.4 of the Criminal Code is constitutionally invalid (according to the Supreme Court of British Columbia).

R. v. Beatty

Posted on February 22, 2008
The Supreme Court takes another hack at criminal negligence for the offence of dangerous driving. And, in three concurring judgments, offers plenty of grist for the mill. I don’t know if I understand the decision, but since I’m sure I’ll be reading analyses of it for the next couple of years, I can live with my uncertainty...

R. v. Smith

Posted on February 14, 2008
The appellant was convicted of breaching a term of his recognizance that required him to remain at least fifty metres from the British Embassy in Ottawa. The appellant testified that he believed that the term required him to remain fifteen metres from the Embassy...

Dance, dance, dance

Posted on February 13, 2008
From the CP wire (here at the Globe and Mail): The definition of “indecent” was debated in Provincial Court yesterday as the trial of a man accused of dancing naked on his lawn concluded in Moncton. Peter William Bulman is accused of exposing himself to a woman and her young daughter on Sept...

R. v. Harrison

Posted on February 12, 2008
A close call from the Ontario Court of Appeal on a s. 24(2) case. The appellant had been stopped by a police officer and his SUV searched. Found inside were 77 pounds of cocaine (for some reason the Court eschews our newfangled metric system throughout their decision)...

Well, that’s a relief

Posted on February 11, 2008
From the Toronto Star: There is nothing in the provincial legislation to prevent drivers from flashing their headlights to warn oncoming traffic of a police radar spot check, according to police and other officials. Wheels readers have expressed their opinions about a recent Jim Kenzie story in which Brad Diamond, host of TSN’s Motoring 2008, was charged under an obscure section of Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act that regulates alternating flashing headlights typically used by emergency vehicles...

R. v. Abel and Corbett

Posted on February 09, 2008
Abel and Corbett were convicted of offences arising out of their apprehension of one Holl, who was in possession of Abel’s rifle. Abel and Corbett wanted to argue at trial that they were effecting a citizen’s arrest, but the trial judge would not put this defence to the jury...

R. v. Rattray

Posted on February 07, 2008
The appellant was convicted of breaching a court order by being in possession of a firearm. His argument on appeal was that the court did not have jurisdiction over the offences, since possession of a gun in Michigan (which is where he bought an assault rifle) does not constitute an offence in Canada...

Sexsomnia on trial

Posted on February 07, 2008
Is sexsomnia a mental illness? That is what is being argued before the Ontario Court of Appeal in an appeal of the decision in the Luedecke case, where a man was acquitted on a defense of non-insane automatism after having sex with a woman apparently while he was asleep...

A big one goes down

Posted on February 01, 2008
A case described as the “largest police corruption scandal in Canadian history” has ended after ten years of investigation and court proceedings with all charges being stayed agains the six accused because lengthy delays violated their Charter right to a fair trial...

R. v. V. W.

Posted on January 27, 2008
Are victim impact statements admissible to prove the facts required to make an SVO (Serious Violent Offender) designation in a hearing under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and, if they are, does the offender have the right to cross-examine the victim? Sort of...

R. v. C. L. Y.

Posted on January 25, 2008
The Supreme Court overturns a decision, shockingly upheld by the Manitoba Court of Appeal, that can only be described, in the cliched phrase, as a travesty of justice. C. L. Y. was a teenager accused of inappropriately touching a girl he was babysitting...

Vox populi

Posted on January 24, 2008
The CBC, who broke the story, have more updates on the controversy over the release of a police surveillance videotape that shows a 15-year-old girl being restrained within a padded cell after being picked up for drunk and disorderly behaviour. Specifcally, the video shows Willow Kinlock being handcuffed and having her legs bound with a nylon strap and her feet secured to the bottom of the cell door, which gave her just a few centimetres to move...

R. v. Nguyen

Posted on January 24, 2008
While investigating a basement grow-op, a police officer saw a van driven by the appellant enter the driveway. The appellant, a Vietnamese immigrant, briefly stopped his van and then began to leave the driveway in reverse. The officer was wearing a vest with the word ?Police? in large white letters...

Family Day follies

Posted on January 17, 2008
The Toronto Star reports “Family Day a field day for scofflaws.” Apparently around a thousand minor traffic charges have been thrown out because of court scheduling conflicts arising from Ontario’s new “Family Day” holiday (which is February 18)...

R. v. Kanda

Posted on January 15, 2008
Mr. Kanda was driving his two sons to school. His youngest son, eight years old, was in the back seat. When they left the house Mr. Kanda made sure everyone was wearing their seat belt. Alas, he was not aware that his son in the back seat had unfastened his seat belt during the drive...

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